Wireless communication devices have become smaller and more powerful in order to meet consumer needs and to improve portability and convenience. Consumers have become dependent upon wireless communication devices such as cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, and the like. Consumers have come to expect reliable service, expanded areas of coverage, and increased functionality. Wireless communication devices may be referred to as mobile stations, stations, access terminals, user terminals, terminals, subscriber units, user equipment, etc.
A wireless communication system may simultaneously support communication for multiple wireless communication devices. A wireless communication device may communicate with one or more base stations (which may alternatively be referred to as access points, Node Bs, etc.) via transmissions on the uplink and the downlink. The uplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from the wireless communication devices to the base stations, and the downlink (or forward link) refers to the communication link from the base stations to the wireless communication devices.
Wireless communication systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems.
Control signals may be used in some or all of these communication systems. Higher voltages and power are needed to drive these control signals as the complexity of the systems increase. However, the circuits included in the communication devices continue to decrease. As the geometry of the circuits decrease, the difficulty in driving control signals with a higher voltage increases. As such, benefits may be realized by providing systems and methods for controlling the voltage of signals used to control power amplifiers.